China's GDP rose to USD 12.1 trillion in last five years: Xi Jinping

Presenting the work report of his five-year tenure to the week-long Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) here, Xi who is set to head the party and the military for another five years said, "the economy has maintained a medium-high growth rate, making China a leader among the major economies." 

China has maintained its position as the world's second largest economy and contributed more than 30 per cent of global economic growth, Xi said. 

China's GDP rose from 54 trillion to 80 trillion yuan (about USD 12.1 trillion) over the past five years, he said. 

The rapid growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is among the major economic achievements under the leadership of the CPC in the five years since the last party congress in 2012, he told over 2,000 delegates assembled at the Great Hall of the People for the once-in-a-five-year mega event. 

The economic structure has been steadily improved as the supply-side structural reform has made further headway, Xi said. 

The five years also saw agricultural modernisation steadily advance, with annual grain production reaching 600 million metric tonnes, Xi said. 

The level of urbanisation has risen by an annual average of 1.2 percentage points, and more than 80 million people who have moved from rural to urban areas have gained permanent urban residency, he said. 

"The new institutions of the open economy have been steadily improved. China now leads the world in trade, outbound investment, and foreign exchange reserves," he said. 

Xi also said more than 60 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the past five years, with the poverty head- count ratio dropping from 10.2 to less than 4 per cent. 

This is the "decisive progress" in China's fight against poverty, Xi said. 

Poverty relief is high on China's agenda, and the country has vowed to lift everybody out of poverty by 2020. Since the start of the reform and opening up, China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. 

The Party will strengthen the system for making heads of Party committees and governments at each level assume the overall responsibility for poverty alleviation, Xi said.

"We must ensure that by the year 2020, all rural residents living below the current poverty line will have been out of poverty, and poverty is eliminated in all poor counties and regions. Poverty alleviation should reach those who truly need it and deliver genuine outcomes," he said. 

Xi also said China will introduce a negative list for market access across the country, and support the growth of private businesses. 

A negative list model is one that, in accordance with laws and regulations, clearly states sectors and businesses that are off limits to some market entities. 

"We will introduce a negative list for market access nationwide, sort through and do away with regulations and practices that impede the development of a unified market and fair competition, support the growth of private businesses, and stimulate the vitality of various market entities," he said. 

"We will deepen reforms in the business sector, break administrative monopolies, preclude the forming of market monopolies, speed up the reform of market-based pricing of factors of production, relax control over market access in the service sector, and improve market oversight mechanisms," the Chinese president said.